LED ZEPPELIN @ 55

 

Released on January 12th, 1969, the debut eponymous LP by Led Zeppelin turns 55 years old today. Rising from the ashes of The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin would lay out some of the most important foundation stones for heavy metal & hard rock and become one of the biggest bands in the world throughout the following decade.

Jimmy Page, the man at the centre of the band, spent most of his career in the '60s working as a highly regarded session musician in the UK. In 1966 he joined The Yardbirds, then fronted by guitar legend Jeff Beck, as a bass player, but soon switched to guitar, doubling up on leads with Beck. Beck left the group the following year, putting Page at the helm for their final album, Little Games (1967). By 1968, other members of the group were burning out from touring and also wanting to go in a more acoustic folk oriented direction. Page's penchant for hard and heavy blues put him at odds with that. With contractual obligations still necessitating a number of remaining tour dates, the departing members of The Yardbirds agreed that the group could temporarily continue on stage as the "New Yardbirds", with Page assembling a fresh band.

Page's initial conception was to create a super-group with Jeff Beck, plus Keith Moon and John Entwistle from The Who, and possibly vocalist Steve Winwood or Steve Marriott. This never materialized as all his picks for vocalist turned him down. Instead, he found himself being referred by another declining first pick vocalist, Terry Reid, to a relative unknown by the name of Robert Plant, who in turn brought along drummer John Bonham. Bassist John-Paul Jones, who was someone Page knew from session work, auditioned for the group at his wife's behest, thus completing the lineup. With the four members in place, they fulfilled the touring requirements of the Yardbirds before heading to the studio to start working on some recordings of their own.

With the Yardbirds name no longer legally available for them to use as a recording entity, they began to consider alternatives. At one point, Keith Moon had commented that Page's "super-group" concept would go down like a "lead balloon", disparaging that it would be less than successful, but the irony of the concept appealed to Page. At the suggestion of manager Peter Grant, the name was modified to Led Zeppelin, dropping the "a" in "lead" so people didn't mispronounce it "Leed", and changing "balloon" to "Zeppelin", as it evoked the ideas of both lightness with heaviness as well as combustibility. That cheekiness would also express itself on the album's cover, which featured the famous shot of the Hindenburg bursting into flames. If it was going to be a colossal failure, they might as well have a sense of humour about it.

The band began recording their debut LP in mid September, 1968, completing recording and mixing in a mere 9 days, with production costs covered by Page and Grant. The material for the album was drawn from mostly original songs worked out during their transitional touring phase fulfilling their commitments to the Yardbirds, with some traditional blues material having been percolating within the predecessor group while Page was in charge. With most of the songs well worked out during their contractual obligation tour, they were able to get them down on tape in the studio with little fuss.

Page used a "distance makes depth" approach to production. At the time, most music producers placed microphones directly in front of the amplifiers and drums. For Led Zeppelin, he developed the idea of placing additional microphones some distance from the amplifier (as far as 20 feet) and then recording the balance between the two. The technique would provide Zeppelin's signature sound and flew in the face of the dry-as-bones productions that dominated throughout the 1970s. It wouldn't be until a full decade later that this methodology would become common among the mainstream of rock and pop producers.

Peter Grant then set about nailing down a record contract for the band, and thanks to his bullish determination and a recommendation by Dusty Springfield, managed to secure a deal with Atlantic Records, which included a whopping $143,000 advance, the largest ever paid for an unknown band, sight unseen. The deal included exclusive rights for the band to have complete control over their touring and recording schedules, as well as creative control of all aspects of their products, including mixing, production and album graphics.

Their debut album was released while the band were on their first tour of the US, with the album peaking on the American Billboard charts at #10, and #6 in the UK. Throughout the year after its release, they would tour the US and UK four times and release their sophomore LP before the year's end. It was a blitzkrieg attack on the rock world that set the industry on notice that something massive was about to dominate the world of rock 'n' roll, redefining its sound for a new era.

Initial critical reception for the album, surprisingly, was often negative and harsh. The group emerged at a time when "super-groups" were all the rage, while their bloated promises of greatness mostly turned out to be over-hyped bullshit. As such, the critical tides were against them and they suffered a few slings and arrows before they could prove themselves. Retrospectively, the album has shaken off any and all of the detritus of those early critiques and reigns as one of the band's most highly regarded releases. Its raw energy and intensity have made it representative of the band at their fiercest, most primal peak.